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TCHC's crime tipster incentive sets bad precedent, say some observers

CEO Gene Jones’s $150,000 gesture toward repairs at Swansea Mews for tenants’ help in solving a murder leaves some concerned about the message sent.

Susan Gapka, a tenant activist who lives in a TCHC building, shows some water damaged ceiling tiles. Gapka is angry with the TCHC's decision to reward Swansea Mews tenants with repairs after they came forward to identify suspects in a murder.
(ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Public housing tenants and experts say Toronto Community Housing CEO Gene Jones set a dangerous precedent Tuesday by rewarding $150,000 in capital repairs to the Swansea Mews project for residents’ help solving a recent murder in the area.

The reward, they argue, sends a message to other TCHC tenants that they should “snitch” on their neighbours if they want their maintenance woes addressed sooner.

Residents of Swansea, near Windermere Ave. and The Queensway, tipped police about three suspects living in the complex allegedly connected to the fatal shooting of Christopher Kotsopoulos on Aug. 5. As a reward for coming forward, the TCHC granted the complex funds for a new fence, improved lighting, an extra security camera and repairs to its laundry room.

“I want all my residents to know that if they come together like the residents at Queensway Windermere, I will work with them to make their community a better place,” said Jones via email.

“The board chair and I were talking about different ways we can get residents engaged in our communities, and this is one idea that came up.”

But Susan Gapka, a tenant of 145 Mutual St., feels the TCHC, which currently has a repair backlog of $750 million, is telling her she must risk her life whistle-blowing suspicious activity in her community if she wants her building’s leaky roof fixed quicker.

“Whenever it rains, the 15th floor floods,” said the 56-year-old member of activist group Tenants for Social Housing. “We’ve been unable to get capital repairs, but apparently we’ve been going about it the wrong way.”

Gapka is concerned Jones’ “riches for snitches” incentive will pit neighbour against neighbour, and even highrise against highrise.

“This is the wrong message to send because it will create a society where we won’t trust our neighbours,” she said. “It’s an old Roman Empire tactic; pitting one group of disadvantaged people against another.”

Mitchell Kosny, associate director of Ryerson University’s school of urban and regional planning and a former TCHC chair, called Jones’ reward system a backwards approach to community building.

“It’s almost like they’re rewarding communities for having problems,” he said. “It’s like, ‘We’re worse off than them, so give us money.’ It’s an opposite way of building collaborative networks. I’m not sure community safety comes from a bounty-hunter approach to patrolling hallways.”

David Hyde, an independent security consultant, said the TCHC should foster a broader system of trust between communities and police, rather than “dangling a financial carrot to people in communities where some are desperate for these changes and may be willing to stick their necks out to get them.”

“I’m very proud, I think it is beautiful,” said Mustafa Mohammed Said, 34. “We want safety, we want security and we want peace. It’s good to have a reward. The place I’m living in is very old; the ceiling is broken.”

But Geordie Dent, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Association, said that by law, “a landlord isn’t able to use legally mandated repairs as an incentive tool” and that “repairs are a legal thing they’re supposed to be doing at all times.”

Jones said the reward did not come from the TCHC’s capital budget and will not affect repairs already planned for other buildings.

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